Stateroom staff were very friendly (to get a big tip) but the rest of the staff were unfriendly and at times quite rude. This cruise was included in an 18 day COSMOS Rockies and Alaska Masterpiece and all that is said on Holland America Line's web pages is correct about the facilities of the ship although it is all a bit tired but it is an attitude on board that allows me to make the decision not to travel with HAL ever again. I found staff would not speak when passing in hallways, would not stand aside for you especially when passing in the doorway of the LIDO deck restaurant and guest service staff would listen then ignore your request.

We had paid extra for the Balcony Stateroom which included a fridge which broke down (not sure that it was working at all as our air-conditioning (heating) was broken and we froze for 4 days out of 7 and after numerable requests was repaired on the 4th night and it was the 5th morning that we noticed the the fridge was hot) and after 5 requests was finally replaced with another dumped under the bend where the chair goes. On checking our on-board account found we had been charged $4 rental for that night. This had not been removed the next morning on disembarkation when the account was due to be paid even though we had made it quite clear the previous day that it was to be reversed and would not be paid (not because of the money, it was the principle).

LIDO deck staff were quite sharp, cleaned tables with cold water in a mayonnaise bucket of water under the bench and coffee machines were broken. There are only 3 floors with laundries, Deck 2, 3 and 6 to service 10 decks and Deck 6 had one 2 out of 4 dryers out of action for the whole 7 days. Read more